When Don Imus and other racist jerks appropriate African-American terminology at Racialicious

When Don Imus and other racist jerks appropriate African-American terminology

by guest contributor Meera Bowman-Johnson, originally published at Our Kind of Parenting

In the best of times, being black is absolutely beautiful (let the choir say “Amen!”). In the worst of times, it feels something like this:

Three men went to hell.

The devil said to them “You have come to hell, and you must now choose whether to spend eternity in room 1, 2 or 3″

He then opened the doors to the three rooms.

Room 1 was filled with men standing on their heads, on a hard wooden floor.

Room 2 was filled with men standing on the heads, on a cement floor.

Finally, room 3 had just a few men, standing in human feces up to their knees and drinking coffee.

The men thought for a while, and decided to go with room 3, as it was less crowded and they could drink coffee.

They entered the door to room 3 and just as it was closing behind them, the devil said “OK men, coffee break’s over. Back on your heads.”

Sometimes, all you can do is laugh. Because just when it looks like everything’s cool, that no public figure has acted out in a while and offended black people, some modern-day Jimmy the Greek has to come out of their face with a racist insult. For no good reason at all (not that there ever is one). By now, just about everybody in the black blogosphere has weighed in on Don Imus’ ignorant and offensive remarks about the Rutgers’ Women’s Baskeball Team. The comment that referred to the impressive athletes as “nappy headed hos” (for those who’ve been under the mommy - or daddy - rock for the couple of weeks).

I’ve read countless, incredibly astute reactions to the “shock jock’s” remarks, but thought one of the most pointed came from Deborah Dickerson’s The Last Plantation: “You never see the racism coming. You’re minding your own business, say, playing basketball or buying groceries or eating at Krispy Kreme when an Imus comes along and forces you to be ‘black’ so he can be ‘white’.” As a woman who deeply despises misogynistic language and has has proudly worn just about every natural style known to 125th Street, all I could think was, (to quote The Millionaire’s Wife from Gilligan’s Island): “Well (snif). I’ve never!”

Oh, wait a minute. Yes I have.

Like my friend Field Negro so eloquently alluded to, this Imus business is par for the course for those of us LWB (Living While Black). I don’t like it, I don’t condone it, but do I expect it? Sadly, yes. Because, just in case anybody is late coming to the party, there are a lot of ignorant people in the house. To narrow the group even further, there are a lot of ignorant racists dancing poorly, to their own rhythm. And to whittle it down even one degree further, there are a lot of ignorant racists throwing their hands in the air like they just don’t care, ’cause they really don’t think they’re racists. I’m fairly certain Don Imus is one of those clueless types. The type that thinks that having a couple of black drinking buddies gives them free reign to say whatever and end up getting left at the bar (or in the studio) wondering “Hey…where did everybody go??”

I say this for one reason only: the term “hos” is one highly offensive thing, but how many white guys do you know actually even know the word “nappy”…until now? Hugh Grant thinks it means diaper. So does Paul McCartney. Of course they do, they’re English. But what about white American guys (the ones that aren’t married to black women)? Sure, terms like “diss” began popping up on sitcoms back in the early nineties and “bling” crossed quite seamlessly, thanks to people like Puffy (who I blame for many things). “Hos” I could see (rappers throw that one around all the time which is a seperate post altogether), but “nappy”? Where’d he get that one from, BET’s Comicview?

All I can assume is that, much like the old anti-drug commercial, where the hysterical dad confronts his adolescent son when he finds weed in his room (”I learned it from watching you, Dad!”), Don Imus learned the word “nappy” by watching black people (not that I, nor my fellow ethnicists are personally to blame for any of this nonsense). Whether it was through listening to hip hop, watching School Daze, or hanging out with Robin Quivers, somewhere along the way, Imus caught on to another N-word and assumed the word was fair game. Or maybe he caught somebody proudly sporting one of those old school “Happy to Be Nappy” t-shirts I picked up junior year of high school at The Greek Picnic. I don’t know.

What I do know is that there are words that are okay for black folks to say in present company that other people just can’t use (sorry). Is it a double-standard? Yes. Is it a rusty, jagged, double-edged sword? Sure. Is it fair? Hell, yeah. It’s called code-switching people, and it’s high time black folks get back to that. If every word that is a part of African American vernacular is pumped into the mainstream, a critical part of the culture will be lost. I’m not saying we should go around speaking Gullah, but I do think there’s a certain power to the A-B conversation. If for no other reason, then to prevent racist jerks from appropriating African American terminology and then using it to insult people.

Maybe there should be a Negro Lexicon of sorts, for words that are an historical part of the vernacular, meant only to be used in certain company. That way, they’ll never be used incorrectly and nobody’s feelings could get hurt. Everybody with some African ancestry would receive the book; it would be sort of like the National Do Not Call Registry. But for black people. I’m not talking about words like “pimps”, “playas” or garden tools (which the Rutgers Women’s Team is far from by the way, and I resent that, too). I’m talking about the words your Nana used to say when she was doing your hair in the kitchen Saturday night before church. Does Don Imus know what “baby hair” is? What “edges” are? Dear Lord, let’s hope not.

It seems like every time I think the coast is clear, somebody has to slip up and say something stupid to inform me that they really think I need to forget the college degree and go scrub dirty toilets for a living. In this particular instance, what we can take from Don Imus’ comments is that to some, hardworking, talented and college educated young black women will never be seen as anything more than hypersexual chicken heads. Those young ladies deserve better than that. We all do. Right now, OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again” (and that mesmerizing video on the treadmills) is stuck on continuous play in my brain. Here it goes. Again.

Okay black people, coffee break’s over. Back on our (nappy?) heads.

Trackbacks & Pings

History Lesson at Zuky: Gangster Culture » The Primary Contradiction on 14 Apr 2007 at 2:21 am

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The Indelibility of Events…

What do you have to do to be called a racist these days? Shoot Medgar Evers? –Chris Rock on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Ding dong, the wicked old witch is dead. Or something like that. Of course, the week’s…

Comments

Ecru wrote:

I agree completely, if in the absolutely ugliest mood ever I call my mother a “bitch”, or for the oddest reason my pet name for my mum is “bitch”…and you over hear this and try to use that word on my mum…look out!

There are certain words that don’t translate well, that don’t cross over. Nappy is one of them.

(I would NEVER call my mum a bitch-I adore and worship her to much).

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 8:16 am ¶
Kaywil wrote:

I understand that the attention span of the general population is short and therefore their recollection if history is short, but it’s not like black people walked into this country and said “after centuries of being seen as beautiful because of my hair, of seeing kings and queens with my hair, I’m now going to start hating it and calling it nappy.” That word was passed down from owners, just like the N word. It’s not “our word”. Imus must have, during a moment of insanity, read a history book or remembered what his grandpappy would say at christmas dinners when he was a kid.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 9:35 am ¶
mtevc wrote:

Being a bit older than the young women on the Rutgers team (42) and thinking about their ages and how they were just a bit ago out of high school, it really made me cry to think about what they were called. All this when they should have been celebrating. These are young, young women (and yes, just a bit ago girls) who were degraded, at a point when they should be smiling and having a moment in the sun. Imus didn’t care about that. To him, they were a mass lump of a group to put down. What does he care? He doesn’t see them as he would his own granddaughter, niece, etc., and that’s where the problem remains. But the other problem is that black folks (of which I am one) need to call each other out on the crap language that we’ve used on one another. Just because we’ve allowed it to creep into the vernacular doesn’t mean it’s ok to refer to each other as niggers and bitches and ho’s. Get a life, and get an education. My father (God rest his soul) was born in 1909…yes, a couple of generations older than my mom, and he and his group of friends managed to get to college, work hard, and confront and fight for so much…in a segragated WW2 army, back in the states trying to get work, etc. All this…so I could eventually go to college, have a nice life in the burbs, pay taxes, and not have to worry about supporting myself, but not to get to the point where we as a people degrade ourselves. We’ve gotten to the point—white and black people alike—where we accept too much trash, and if we stand up against it, then we receive complaints. Why is everyone so passive about the trash that crosses our desks, TVs, radios, iPods? And who the heck elected Al Sharpton as our “go to man?” Can I get a recount????? Besides, I can’t trust a man with a perm. And Jesse??? One second ago he was running from using derogatory comments against Jewish people. Now, he’s the monitor of what’s right and wrong???? This is the problem…Imus goes to Sharpton for redemption. See how clueless Imus really is about black folks. Sharpton does not speak for the vast majority of black people.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 9:38 am ¶
berrybrowne wrote:

i agree with everybody and appreciate the post. as kaywil pointed out re the history book, the thing that irritates me about all of these “out of nowhere” racist tirades is that there is about zero percent originality to any of this. if the likes of imus want to claim comedic license, shouldn’t they be spouting something besides couple of hundred year-old jungle bunny jokes? enough is enough is enough.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 10:10 am ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:

Yes, Black people did not “invent” the word nappy.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 10:16 am ¶
Kaywil wrote:

Well said, mtevc! Who elected them?!?!

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 11:36 am ¶
wendi wrote:

my thoughts on Mr. Imus’ comment in the New York Times Yesterday (from http://www.mattersofrace.blogspot.com):

. . . he said that the phrases he used “originated in the black community. … I may be a white man, but I know that these young women and young black women all through that society are demeaned and degraded by their own black men and that they are called that name.”

Oh no.

I think that comment just might make Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have a heart attack each, or, at least, might permanently straighten Mr. Sharpton’s hair.

But I have to agree with Mr. Imus on this one. For once, the crazy shock jock is right… in his own twisted way.

I have said it oh, maybe 700 times in this blog alone, people of color are often their own worst enemy. Though we blame the dominant culture and greater society for many of the problems within our community, we often cease to publicly reflect on the problems within our communities for fear of bringing on additional negativity from the people we already feel judge us relentlessly. Here’s a good example of Mr. Imus turning the tables. He’s saying, in short, that blacks provided him with the ammunition he used against these young women.

And that, we did. There is an extremely harmful degree of lookism within communities of color regarding how dark is too dark, how one should wear his/her hair, what is deemed as a socially acceptable form of beauty, and most certainly with regard to gender roles. In many cases, people of color (and yes, by POC I am speaking beyond just black people) and other marginalized ethnic groups are their own worst critics, sometimes restricting each other to norms that are more rigid than those expected by the general public (read: white onlookers). As a result of that, we sometimes insulate rather conservative and archaic standards just because they give us a sense of calling something our own.

In reality, however, these standards are more often than not, the result of life-long assimilation into the dominant culture that has become such a part of our selves that we don’t realize it. For example, my mother, who considers herself quite progressive, still says things that expose her internalized racism and self-hatred. She has very light skin, as does everyone else in her immediate family (with the exception of one brother and one sister, who are more of milk chocolate color). Her mother and father, despite having the 2 dark children (and the fact that both of my grandmother’s parents were dark, though she is very light-skinned), always warned my mother and her 7 siblings of the dangerous dark people that they were never to trust, date, marry, or really get to know beyond simple play dates. As a result, my mother (note the conjunction placement) will let statements like the following slip: “That model is so dark, but she’s very pretty,” as if to say that being pretty is typically the opposite of being dark, meaning that dark skin is ugly, yet she often wishes she had dark skin. Or, even better, she sometimes compares herself to me using statements like, “You have such pretty hair. I wish I had nice hair like yours. Mine is so nappy!” Bingo.

What about nappy hair is so bad that it’s become its own insult? It’s a scary sign when whitewashing is this successful– so successful that one does not even recognize that when using statements like the aforementioned as a means of comparison, people of color, and, in this case (and the Imus incident’s case) black people, are submitting to white standards of what is acceptable. When my mom says things like “I wish my hair were more manageable,” I have to remind her that even that word “manageable” is contingent on white standards of what one can and should do with his or her hair. Manageability relies on the ability to style ones hair in ways that are fitting for whites . . . aka easy to brush to the point of wavy or straightness, smooth (not frizzy), shiny, and full of body. She has never stopped to think that those elements are not a part of what her hair naturally is, and there is nothing wrong with that.

It worries me that racists can use something that is simply a comment, a statement of truth, to insult us. Afterall, in centuries past, being called black was an offense that could end in trial and in fact, being called blacked or even the implication that one was black by another person was grounds for a defamation law suit. Even though this (blackness) may have been a statement of fact, or a simple observation, accusation of blackness and/or insinuation of blackness was (and arguably still is) considered such a terrible offense that it could ruin someone’s reputation, sully one’s character, and destroy a life.

So now-a-days, much in the same fashion as “black” and its associated negativity in the past, “nappy” is a term that, when used toward black women by people of any race, especially if to insinuate ugliness, is incredibly offensive (ahem, note that despite “natural” hair being considered socially acceptable in the present, “natural” is a more PC/socially-acceptable version of “nappy”…though I am quick to say “I don’t mean nappy in a bad way! I think there is nothing wrong with “nappy hair.” But isn’t it crazy/sad that I have to say that anyway, just to comfort people?). It’s disgusting to me that a simple adjective has become so politicized that it can hardly be used without 3000 disclaimers. But then again, almost anything from a certain person if said in a certain way can be construed as an insult, and that is certainly how Mr. Imus intended his comment about the Rutgers players.

Insult or not, Mr. Imus’ finger-pointing provides communities of color with an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate our own internal standards and self-hatred. We need to turn it around so that we do not insult each other by referencing aspects of truth about ourselves, particularly so that we can demonstrate that we are not bound by the standards others project ONTO us. It gives men like Mr. Imus less ammunition, after all, and if people like that knew that we didn’t hate ourselves for having nappy hair to the degree that it’s an insult even if a black person says it (which he points out), or any other “ethnic” characteristic for that matter, then said insults would not have nearly as much sting as they do when they come from the other communities. We would say, “So what? They have nappy hair. Thank you for the compliment.”

Once you incorporate the issue of him calling the women whores, however, that’s another story. That is also an internal judgment call that we picked up from outside criticism of black women (see my entry on the jezebel and the mammy), but we have no justification for using such a statement within our own community. By condoning such language with silence, we basically say it’s ok, or that it’s not nearly as insulting as it should be, which simply excuses Mr. Imus, and makes it a problem we need to deal with on the inside before we jump on the people who say it on the outside.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 11:47 am ¶
Anonymous wrote:

More spotlight for Sharpton.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 11:55 am ¶
Nancie wrote:

Whatever happened to “consider the source.” I mean, Imus, come on! He is useless. Who cares what he says? Why don’t they just rise above all that and not give all these folks fuel. That’s the only way to show your class.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 11:57 am ¶
LM wrote:

wendi, nice breakdown… I think it’s worth considering whether Imus’s comments would have gotten so much attention is he’d only called the Rutgers team garden tools, without the “nappy-headed” modifier. Would have been as objectionable (kudos to mtevc’s comments, too), and from the same ignorance.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 12:30 pm ¶
HighJive wrote:

Nancie,

You make a good point. At the same time, if a collective group can stand up and get Imus fired, isn’t that a bigger and more meaningful statement? It’s possible to show class and power too.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 1:30 pm ¶
Stef wrote:

Excellent post and great comments!

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 1:31 pm ¶
kim wrote:

Not even reading the article, I must say that to deem his words ‘African-American’ terminology is a form of assigning blanket group speech and acceptance to terms that are absolutely insulting and hurtful, absolutely rejected and unacceptable, to many within the identified ethnic, or hyphenated group.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 2:25 pm ¶
lil wrote:

Imus is a racist, sexist ass and his comments were racist and sexist, and I’d love for him to be fired.

As someone who is not black and who is very curious about words and language, I’m wondering — is nappy really a bad word to use? Taken out of the rude Imus context, I mean?

Isn’t it a very old descriptive word that can be used for any sort of thing besides hair?

Is it true that non-black people shouldn’t use that adjective?

I would say the sweater I’m wearing today has some nappy qualities, for instance.

Typing that sentence *felt* okay….

I always thought it was kind of a nice word.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 2:55 pm ¶
joy wrote:

i’m an 8th grade teacher in the s. bronx, and today (coincidentally, i believe) my students taught me that don imus is most definitely just the tip of our hate iceberg. my kids are all black or latino, and i just had to blog about our conversation today.
i copy it here because i think it’s super relevant to what wendi had to say earlier…
…”ms. osborne,” they said, “it’s time for you to get your hair done.”
“huh?” i said.
“um, miss, just in case you haven’t noticed, your hair is nappy. like you could hide things in there. you could lose things up in that piece. why don’t you get a perm? it would be sooo long and nice if you did.”
“uh, my hair is the same length whether it’s straight or not.”
“no it’s not!”
“yes it is. my hair is always my hair. this way, though, it’s not contaminated by chemicals or made unhealthy. it doesn’t break off, and i never get burned. and just in case you forgot, this is how it GROWS out of my HEAD. why should i change the way i was made?”
“ummm, okay, but it’s nappy. you’d be so much prettier!”
and then they all jumped in, a chorus of latino and black children, begging their teacher, just for a few days, to “be pretty.” to “fix” her appearance.

no matter how many times i explain it, no matter how many times i tell myself that one day they’ll realize why i wear my hair the way i do, there are still these days, these moments, when room 315 is the ultimate microcosm for American society. and rm. 315 doesn’t need a don imus to make nasty remarks. it already has sasha and joshua and kenesha and genevieve. society has already taught them (and me) what to think.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 3:48 pm ¶
drea wrote:

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to even think about classifying a group of terms “for black use only.” Personally, nappy would have more negative connotations if it was direct to me from a black person because I know that in black culture nappy tends to be far from beautiful. If a non-black person referred to my hair as nappy, I would brush it off figuring that they didn’t even know what they were saying (see: lil) .
“nappy-headed ho” is an insult no matter who says it. Imus’ “joke” goes so horribly wrong because he insulted young women who did absolutely nothing to provoke it.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 3:50 pm ¶
lemure wrote:

Nappy is offensive in this case because of context. I am happily nappy myself, but he called them “nappy headed hoes” and also “jigaboos”, he didn’t mean it in any other way than offensive. Also, black people didn’t make up these words, and just because physical slavery has ended doesn’t mean mental slavery has. What black people say and think (esp the younger generation) never mattered to SOME white people before, now supposedly the words of SOME ignorant rappers and corner kids holds such hypnotic sway this methusalah can’t help but assimilate them? Pu-leese The words of SOME black people do not give racists the license to insult ALL black people. Yes I’m offended by hip hop and vigorously protest that mysoginist language as well, but I can worry about more than one thing. There are far too many slip ups coming out of visible figures mouths these days, and the same people that were calling for Isiah Washington’s head for words said out of all our earshot (and yes, he created a hostile work environment) are telling us to relax regarding a racist, sexist exchange on NATIONAL radio. Boycott the mofo and his advertisers I say, because all the “ole boys network” understands is money!

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 3:53 pm ¶
James wrote:

“It seems like every time I think the coast is clear, somebody has to slip up and say something stupid to inform me that they really think I need to forget the college degree and go scrub dirty toilets for a living. ” - Meera Bowman-Johnson

Honestly, African Americans should never forget that most Americans (Blacks included) really think that Black people should forget collegiate study in favor of domestic work. We are always cast in the minds of others in the lowest American caste, capable of nothing but manual labor and social problems, and we should never allow optimistic forgetfulness of this sad American trend to obscure our common sense.

Seriously, the modern corporate world continually provides African Americans examples of cubicle Imuses who denigrate Black intelligence and Black capability daily. We should not be surprised. The only saving grace remains our reliance on social advocacy in a modern democratic state. Since free speech matters so much to the American electorate, it’s truly positive to watch the National Association of Black Journalists and other groups clamor for corporate social responsibility with their unified calls for Don Imus’ immediate termination. We are watching intelligent, professional African Americans fight for public dignity for the race, and slowly win the argument on the nation’s broadcast news channels and op-ed pages of record in this country. That’s really cool.

Because when Rosie O’ Donnell spewed racist hatespeech against Asian Americans for cheap laughs, Americans didn’t care. No national debate on race in America filled up that slow news week. The racism wasn’t even acknowledged then, and Rosie’s reaction to that and later comments only proved that Donald Trump has more ability to defend himself against antagonistic comments than the entire Asian American community. I never want African American concerns to meet such public indifference. Kudos to Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, and the rest.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 4:24 pm ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:

A friend of mine overheard some college students defending Imus this morning. Strangely, their defense was simply, “But he was right. Their hair isnappy!”

Notice they conveniently left out the most offensive part of the statement.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 6:40 pm ¶
Charlotte wrote:

I believe that if a person has a strong sense of self, what other people say to them or about them doesn’t really mean much at all. I am insulted by White men enough to know I have a pretty thick shell against ignorance willful or not, but it came with age.

When people like Sharpton and Jackson get involve in public matters such as this, I think it’s more for the publicity than actually caring. If there wasn’t much racism around, they would out of jobs because the donations would stop coming in.

I have watched Imus’ shows on occasion and believe that Imus should have been retired/fired years ago. All of his vicious speak against other people gets old quick and makes me wonder about the types of minds that want to listen to him. When he referred to those underprivileged kids at his ranch as “little bastards”, I stopped watching his show completely while waiting for something else to come on the tube.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 8:49 pm ¶
kim wrote:

Lil’:

It is the combination of terms, and in its hyphenated, pejorative sense as used, and not the quality as an actual attribute of coil, form, or texture, which is offensive.

Of course, as with all terms, some Black folks object to nappy as a descriptor at all. Such is the case with the interpretation of the one upon whom the ‘compliment,’ or detraction is placed.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 9:26 pm ¶
SolShine7 wrote:

“Baby hair” - LOL. I haven’t heard that in a long time. And I’d like to leave it that way.

Good post!

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 9:29 pm ¶
Y. Carrington wrote:

Just for clarification, the word “ho” DID NOT originate in the Black community as Imus and white folks like him claim.

Since Imus is such an expert on Black folks and language, I’d assume that he knows damn well that “ho” is a vernacular derivative of the English word “whore,” and that “ho” has the exact same meaning as its 900-year-old parent word (which definitely wasn’t started by African Americans). Like all slurs and insults made popular by hip-hop and “Black” culture, the meaning and connotations of “ho” were created by Europeans. So not only is Imus’ projection of his own racism onto Black men and women disingenuous, it’s a boldface lie.

Either way, nothing that Black folks do or don’t do excuses Imus’ attack on the Rutgers women. He’s the one who got in front of that mike and opened his big mouth, so he should deal with the consequences.

Posted 11 Apr 2007 at 10:09 pm ¶
kim wrote:

“‘I’m talking about the words your Nana used to say when she was doing your hair in the kitchen Saturday night before church. Does Don Imus know what “baby hair” is? What “edges” are? Dear Lord, let’s hope not.”

Does everybody here even know what ‘the kitchen’ is?

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 1:46 am ¶
Colin wrote:

I always thought nappy was good. Kinkitude = negritude right? Now even that’s fair game, damnation.

I worry Imus will come back more ferociously, esp. now that he’s been fired by MSNBC. He’ll get on TV in a few months somewhere on extended cable and he’ll just let loose, angry and the energy and momentum to fight him will have been lost.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 1:53 am ¶
Colin wrote:

Another thing — I’ve been looking through Youtube, readin’ posts and seeing how their little world reflects a 1st Amendment absolutist view (devoid of legal context as it may be) and it made me think, unfortunately:

If violence, sexism, and racism are established American cultural values,

And if “freedom of speech” allows people to speak in controversial ways,

Then why are so many so-called freedom of speech advocates trying to suppress discussions including anti-violent, anti-sexist, and anti-racist viewpoints on this and many other issues?

Why are they opting instead to say time-honored traditions, like denigrating and dehumanizing black women for the shape and texture of their hair follicles and for the mere fact that they are black women, are somehow “politically incorrect” and other things like that? It seems to me that things like what Good Ole’ Imus and his gaggle of idiots said was completely politically correct, and his supporters have got the script flipped.

Basically, political correctness in my mind is staying in line with the foundations of the American body politic, of which violence and hatred play some of the most prominent roles. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m an arrogant son-of-a-gun.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 4:25 am ¶
eric daniels wrote:

My problem is this Imus rightfully should have been fired years ago from both WFAN and MSNBC, but I can’t get worked up about the symptom when the diease has spread throughout American popular culture, and you know Imus is right about the word “Ho” IT DID ORGINATE from Black Pimps and hustlers in books from IceBerg and Donald Goines who were ex-pimps and hustlers in the 50’s and 60’s writing against this lifestyle.

Somehow a minority of poor black kids in the 70’s ignored their messages and made these men super heroes along with the Corelone family in the Godfather trilogies and also misread the message of Willie Dynamite and other black action movies of the era. They later grew up to form rap crews in L.A. , Long Beach,New York and elsewhere when they became adults in the late 80’s - present.

Before the 1970’s there were basic rules of civil conduct in the African- American community and it didn’t matter whether you grew up in the hood, the burbs or elsewhere, you respected your

1. community
2. edlers
3. women
4. parents
5. race
6. other people

Somehow that has been lost since the 80’s and the damage of broken families and the crack epidemic has wroght on poor black folk. The majority of poor black people still have those values but a very vocal loudass minority has celebrated ‘ poverty culture’ and put a racial spin on it to massive sales and success. We as Black Americans must stand up and restore some sense of balance or like Huey Freeman said in The Boondocks ‘Some Bare Minimums’ of social behavior in the public and popular culture. And these minimums should be and it’s only my opinion …

1. Stop calling Black Women B’s and H’s, it should not take a white guy for black folk to stand tall because these are our mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunts and friends.

2. Aceept our same -gender loving black brothas and sistas because they need our love and support in a world that denies them their basic rights to live.

3. Any form of black on black violence for personal profit to me is tomming st8 up. Snoop Dogg and Dre are pushing 40 and saying the same crap they did when he was 20.

4. Any form of discrimination hurts us all. I may love the debate of white guys who are racist and love pushing buttons, we may have differences on how they should be fought or what’s important, but if you only fight those isms that favors your group it is hypocrisy.

4. I am happy to be nappy and dreaded, Don Imus and other Americans can only hurt us if we let them. These young women have nothing to prove to anyone. We as a STRONG BLACK PEOPLE should celebrate our hair whether it is st8 or nappy, cornrows or dreads lyed, dyed and fried.

5. The first admendment may grant you the right to defame, humilate, and insult a proud race of people, but we as Black Americans have the right to make sure you don’t have the access to mass media to promote your sexism, homophobia ,violence and self- hatred on it.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 6:06 am ¶
Sabrina wrote:

Know what really kills me about all this Imus kerfauffle? is how people are pulling the crap about saying “well, BLACK people say it…so why is it wrong for Imus?” and the sad part is that they are partially right. Before we can expect the mainstream to respect us, we have to have our own respect us too. Yes, definitely chastise and can Imus…he deserves it…but we also need to address the inherent sexism and racism within the hip hop culture too. ..keep in mind 50 cent recently said Oprah was a white woman because she disagreed with rap music…by saying this he pretty much implied that only white women are worthy of respect. So I say yes, punish Imus but also STOP supporting these filmmakers, musicians and artists who are consistently creating media that degrade black women, too!

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 8:00 am ¶
Leon Wynter wrote:

Sorry, but I must oppose the author’s defense of a double standard on who has a right to weild the lexicon of self-hatred, and on whom.

Just because we do it to ourselves—with the n-word, the pejorative use of ‘nappy’ and all the rest, that doesn’t make it right, or healthy. And it does nothing to support our demand for full inclusion, respect and justice in this society.

And if you think you can maintain a wall between our intra-race sickness and the next iMuss, well I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like you to check out.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 11:53 am ¶
Kaywil wrote:

Who is the “we” in “we do it to ourselves”? I do not say those things and neither does anyone I know.

‘Whites’ degrade women all the time. Heck, they have a whole entire porn industry for that. And look at Girls Gone Wild, boyfriends selling sex tapes, and the like. But they have the convenience of power, which means that they can disassociate themselves from negativity any time they want. They don’t represent their whole entire race. And when something is a problem, they make it a national crisis and fix it (eg. the meth drug ‘epidemic’).

Blacks don’t have that power. Each individual black person represents the entire race. How convenient! So no, ‘we’ don’t say it too. Some people in a specific demographic of the black population say it. And just like Al Sharpton, they seem to represent all of ‘us’.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 1:18 pm ¶
eric daniels wrote:

As long as there is a white majority , Blacks will be judged against 38 million people while white males who do promote shows like “Girls Gone Wild” and other shows will be judged as indivduals. Does that mean the MLK “I have a Dream” speech in 1963 was a lie? I say YES, YES, YES, because the white majority does not treat negative actions against Blacks as individual acts while they can “Black Guilt” us with claims of “Rap artists call Black Women Ho’s why can’t we”. Common sense has most definately left the building in this case, or should we go on YouTube and other sites are full of “Travis Bickle” types whining about Sharpton and Jackson.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 2:34 pm ¶
deb wrote:

Wow, Ms. Osborne! Maybe you need have them read Nappy Hair. (Actually, it’s for elementary school kids.) A few years ago a white school teacher created an uproar when she selected this book to read to her class. Personally, I didn’t think she meant any harm.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 3:57 pm ¶
goober_pistachio wrote:

Deb: I heard about that there incident. Good intentions can’t go unpunished, right?

Frankly, y’all seriously I can’t wait until the *Latino* majority takes over, like they say there is in the Census and stuff. Then that should put all this “white people be doin’ this” and “white people did this” stuff to rest as an excuse for what folks need to be doing to do right by themselves and others. White people get on my nerves, sure, but not all of ‘em and not all the time, dang…

Seriously, what’s every going to use as an excuse when there is NO more “white majority” in a few years– if there ain’t one no more already? Who’s gonna blame who then? Get all them loud people off and just get some music and real people who actually talk on the air for a change.

Hey Carmen: I hear that CBS and MSNBC might have free airtime open soon… heh heh

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 4:49 pm ¶
T.M.I. wrote:

While rappers have made, and continue to make, records that denigrate black women for years, they are not the ones who have given white people the language to use when they want to diminish, disrespect, and insult Black people. Those words (nappy, ho, etc.) have been around longer than any of us writing on this blog. They’ve just made it more accessible to all Americans…and people living around the world for that matter.

One thing I feel that’s been overlooked in this discussion is the sexism of Imus’s comment. The young women on the Rutgers basketball team excelled on the court as well as in the classroom. With his comment, Imus negated (or attempted to, anyway) all of their hard work by attacking their appearance. It’s like saying “no matter how much you achieve, if I/men don’t find you attractive it doesn’t matter what you’ve done.”

And that’s very hurtful. Especially to a young woman who’s just starting the process of discovering her sense of self and who she is/how she moves in the world.

(Very rarely are men judged/reduced solely to their looks. It’s very hard to understand what years of that kind of judgement and evaluation feels like if you have never experienced it.)

For that reason, I’m glad Imus was fired. He shouldn’t have a national podium through which he can attempt to rob beautiful, talented, accomplished women of their joy. Not to mention, he had it coming for all of his past racist, inappropriate comments.

Posted 12 Apr 2007 at 11:04 pm ¶
Anonymous wrote:

goober_pistachio
Frankly, y’all seriously I can’t wait until the *Latino* majority takes over, like they say there is in the Census and stuff. Then that should put all this “white people be doin’ this” and “white people did this” stuff to rest as an excuse for what folks need to be doing to do right by themselves and others

Who is to say latino’s will be considered people of color in the next 50 years? Lots of immigrants that were once considered non-white are considered white now. Think about the Irish, Jewish folks and Italians. Not so long ago they were not considered white. You might want to consider the reason the census data was spun in such a way that Americans would even think that in the future we would all be people of color. I mean in reality we all are people of color. It is just a political idea used to maintain cheap labor domestically and internationally. It is the old idea that someone is better than someone else for some made up reason. With that said do you really think people that maintain there power from being considered white would just give it up because a new immigrant group is growing or because people are mixing races? Or will they just make new categories of whiteness. Don’t you just wonder who is going to be the next group to get that special white designation? Maybe the latinos or the non-south east asians or the mixed folks. But I will tell you who it won’t be…Black people. Cause White can’t be on top if Black ain’t on the bottom. I’m not ranking opressions I’m just telling like I see it. Everyone else gets attacked in the process but really when people come to this country for the first time ask them who they are striving to be and then ask them who they don’t want to be.

As for the Black community needing check it self I think we really need to heal ourselves and that is not going to happen until we stop playing the game that white folks set up for us. We all want power to the extent that we are willing to step on someone else to get it. I think Black men step on Black women and in some cases women of other ethnicities and Black women step all over each other with the hope of getting one step closer to being so powerful we never have to hurt or hate ourselves or fear or worry about what the world has in store for our daughters and sisters. Face it everyone wants the freedom in the complete sense of the word that a rich, hetrosexual white man has. So free he can insult an entire race and gender and he just might turn a profit from it, with out losing sleep.

Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 12:03 am ¶
merq wrote:

next up: Howard Stern and Ms. Jones

(Never gonna happen, but a guy can dream, right?)

Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 7:56 am ¶
Meera wrote:

“Sorry, but I must oppose the author’s defense of a double standard on who has a right to weild the lexicon of self-hatred, and on whom.”

Leon - I never said that black folks (only) should have the right to use self-hating words against one another.

“Nappy”, in its reappropriated context is not a bad word in at all. Check out the children’s books that have “nappy” as part of the title. Remember those “Happy to Be Nappy” t-shirts?

Posted 13 Apr 2007 at 11:27 pm ¶
squidfly wrote:

This is an order that the Captain of a Slave Ship would bark into the gallows “Bring me up one of the Nappy Headed Whores” You can figure out the rest…

Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 4:15 pm ¶
Kaywil wrote:

Meera - thanks! Now I’ll just wear a “Proud to be a BITCH!” shirt with pride.

We can’t change hurtful words just because we choose to use them ourselves. Speaking of which, WHEN did rappers represent the black population? Should we have a separate black government so that we can actually ELECT our own representatives and stop having media giants let Snoop Dogg and Al Sharpton speak for “us”? How do they even get air time? As long as it serves corporate interests, I guess…

Posted 14 Apr 2007 at 10:13 pm ¶
M B J wrote:

Kaywil - I don’t think the editors of bitch magazine (http://www.bitchmagazine.com/) would find that offense, although I might.

Are you saying that Bell Hook’s “Happy to Be Nappy” (a children’s book) is offensive? Have you ever seen it?

Again, it’s about context.

When did I say that black rappers represent all black people?

Posted 15 Apr 2007 at 9:55 am ¶
Kaywil wrote:

What I’m saying, Meera, is that no matter how you try and put sugar on it, it’s still shit we’re eating. Writing a book about “Happy to be Nappy” does not take away from the word, it just gives mixed messages, like the N word. I can write a book about how sluts are sexually empowered women, but then again, why would I need to use a derogatory word to make my point?

It would be easier to understand my point if we put it in the global context. Take that word somewhere else and it means something different. The word means something specific in America, just like the F-word for gays. As for the word bitch, some women have tried the same thing, to take back the word, but all in all, outside of their own social worlds, the word still means the same old disgusting thing that they were trying to erase. It’s another mixed message for those on the outside looking in.

Plain and simple, it’s a distortion of language. It doesn’t work. That’s why we have a thunderstorm every time an ‘outsider’ uses what ever word (a segment of) the oppressed culture tried to take back. It’s down right silly. It needs to stop.

Perhaps what these (segments of) oppressed cultures are pushing up against is the lack of language available to them to describe themselves in beautiful ways. Instead, they want to recycle words, wash them in bleach, and make it bright and new. My suggestion would be to work it from another angle - create dialogue and language to describe what it is that you want. Since we’re making up the English language on our own terms anyway, why not just start with fresh new language, instead of using this wash and reuse system, because it’s not working.

Posted 15 Apr 2007 at 4:55 pm ¶
eric daniels wrote:

White people (the white&jewish media) had an election and choose the “Black Leaders” for 38 million people. And they are….Jesse, Al, Louis, rappers, Bill Cosby, Jason Whitlock and Juan Williams . Oh screw it, any black person who says Afro- Americans are immoral.Black Conservatives are just brave souls ’shouting in the wilderness’ like John the Baptist hearlding that Afro- Americans are peverted, decadant and in need of “moral reformation.

Posted 16 Apr 2007 at 9:45 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

Eric can we lay off the references to Jewish-owned media please? Thank you.

Posted 16 Apr 2007 at 9:59 am ¶
Meera Bowman-Johnson wrote:

Kaywil, I appreciate your comments, but we should probably agree to disagree here.

I will never put a word that defines kinky, tightly coiled, spongy hair on par with the definitions of bitches, sluts, niggERs or ho’s. To me, “nappy” is not a “bad word” (and where is it documented that slave masters made this word up?) because there is nothing wrong with tightly coiled, spongy hair. That was my case for the code switching, so that it isn’t used any other way, the way Don Imus, who obviously thinks natural hair is despicable, did. Yes, within the black community, the thinking needs to change, too.

Maybe I’ve lived in Brooklyn and Atlanta and Harlem (parts of these cities like Ft. Greene where people love their blackness) for too long, but I agree with Colin’s comment:
“I always thought nappy was good. Kinkitude = negritude right?”

Too bad so many others feel so differently.

Posted 16 Apr 2007 at 10:43 am ¶
CJK wrote:

I always thought that the word nappy was related to fabrics that have nap, like velvet.

Now I’m all curious about which use came first.

Posted 16 Apr 2007 at 2:10 pm ¶
Mindy wrote:

You all spoke the truth! I don’t have “nappy” hair nor am I a “ho” nor am I fully black…but Imus was out of line.

Nancie was on the money, we should consider the source. This bigoted asshole insulted a bunch of talented, hard-working young women over nothing. I’m not one to cry racism but this is clearly one instance of it. I don’t get it. How are they “ho’s”? Their sex lives have nothing to do with their ability to shoot hoops. Neither does the nappiness of their hair or the color of their skin.

Imus is a fool. A pitiful fool. I wonder how his wife feels.

Posted 06 May 2007 at 10:11 pm ¶